October Countdown: 2020

Awoooooo!

We should have had the Best Halloween Ever this year. October 31, 2020 falls on a Saturday with a full moon, a triple convergence that will not happen again for a long, long time. It’s also both a blue moon and a Hunter’s moon, though neither is uncommon when the full moon coincides with All Hallows Eve and Samhain. As a bonus, in many places in the northern hemisphere, the time is changing during the Witching Hours to Daylight Savings, providing everyone with some borrowed time. We’d planned a party, which we’ve had to cancel. I imagined visiting a local haunted attraction or Pumpkin Patch in the afternoon, and then an evening of ghoulishly groovy tunes whilst the costumed kids trampled fallen leaves and begged for candy, and our good-naturedly crazed neighbour ran his charity haunted house, complete with a maniac running after people, chainsaw in hands.

Instead, we have a lingering pandemic, and an American election that is proving scarier than any disease. And where one of the candidates has tested positive for the disease he’s spent a year downplaying.

Since 2020 keeps growing stranger, no one should be especially surprised that some guy dressed like the Incredible Hulk just vandalized Donald Trump’s star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

One tradition continues unabated. The Bureau-cats run our annual October Countdown, which this year sees little in the way of new horrors. We will, however, unearth some excellent views (and one read) to chill and delight you….



October 3/4: Mandy (2018)

October 10/11: Cry of the Werewolf (1944) and Silver Bullet (1985)

October17/18: The Color out of Space (2019)

October 24/25: Rosemary’s Baby (1968): Novel and Movie

Halloween: The Magicians (2015-2020)
(Season One, with subsequent seasons to follow if interest warrants)

4 replies on “October Countdown: 2020”

  1. More sci fi, less politics please. I hate how everything has a political bent now.

    I want life back to normal so bad. I want the pandemic gone and I want to just live life and not have everything be all “end of the world, worst thing ever” anymore.

    That’s whats a downer for Halloween this year. Its no fun pretending to be scared when we had fear rammed down our throats for the past 7 months and in the political realm past umpteen years.

    • Although, I must say, the Halloween Countdown IS and event we can look forward to even with everything else in the world being so messed up!!!

  2. Well, there’s something we can agree on. I hope you enjoy this year’s reviews, presented by Alex Case, Lex Pendragon, and me.

    As far as politics go, there was no way, after that crazed debate, that I could let the U.S. election go unmentioned. I cannot imagine that inspired confidence in anyone. As for the Hulk destroying anyone‘s star on the Walk of Fame, that is serious WTF territory, made site-appropriate by the costume. If I’d woke up today to learn that Hulk had smashed the Three Stooges’ star or Anna May Wong’s, I would have absolutely noted it.

    For my part, I’m not entirely relinquishing Halloween to that most rude of uninvited guests, COVID-19.
    I am working on a costume, which will be ready for the big weekend, even if I just use it to mess with people at work.
    I’ll be dressing as a Plague Doctor from the 1600s.

    • I hear ya. We need to get back to where life is life and politics is a secondary thing. Sadly we need the damn virus to go away!!

      Looking forward to the reviews!!

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